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World War One Letters Home September 1915Arthur is back from a short spell of leave, visits his future in law's hospital in Auteuil, more new boots ...Convois Automobiles
S.S.A. No.3 Par Dijon France September 4th, 1915 My Dear Mother I got back here on Thursday at 12-30. Train so late that I had to sleep night at Nancy instead of arriving here. It has been showery ever since I left apparently & was day I arrvd. & yesterday & today simply teeming. I fear we shall have lots of it & that winter here is a bit of a beast, still we shall no doubt have some lovely autumn days. Leaves beginning to turn. I found some new men, in fact very few of the original lot left. I have same car & man, latter & 2 other shovers came back when I did. I’ve moved up to the other villa where I have room to myself, it has its advantages, but of course it is a ???? up & means going up & down to ones meals. I have front room, balcony & nice view, or will be if it is ever clear. Comfortable bed & I think having room to oneself is a big advantage. Hope it may be dryer than the other villa. Some others have gone on holiday of 3 wks. & several chauffeurs. We had a perfect crossing & I found Will at Boulogne & he came with me to get my military pass etc. & then to town station where we waited till train came up. |
He just met Lorna Smith, but Mrs S. & Mifs Chomley were in dining car & train only waited 2 minutes. We got to Paris 10 to 7 & Alison met us & I drove out to Auteuil with them in motor bus & had supper & went over hospital which is very nice, all so clean & comfortable & they are very well looked after. I talked to one boy, a Breton, such a nice youth, said he had been in 5 hospitals but had never been so well looked after. They have 21 beds & a good staff apparently, 3 trained nurses & the girls & Mrs Blackwood help & dress in nurse kit & have their regular hours. It is a large house & good large airy rooms. It was a girls school up to the war. They have their house next door & door between the 2 gardens, very nice. A man lives in the hospital who represents the military authorities & does the official work as between Mrs S. & Co & the French military. They have an Australian, Irish & French nurse & Dr Helen Sexton at head of it. I wish I could have stopped there a bit. Mifs Chomley is going to stay there for a bit. She wanted to go & help Lady Mabelle Egerton at her coffee stall at Rouen, but can’t get a passport to go there. It is a nice quiet part out where they are & close to Bois de Boulogne. I left the Est station at 8 a.m. Was rather pretty some of the country near Paris … I got myself a pair of rubber boots & put them on today, they are easy to pull on & off & keep one dry this awful weather. Handy too when called up in the night to turn out. Between these & pair you sent me I should be all right … Best love Yr affect. son Arthur |
Arthur trying to trace missing friends, turns down becoming an officer, requests a keepsake from home ...
Convois Automobiles
S.S.A. No.3
Par Dijon
France
September 8th, 1915
My Dear Mother
…
I asked Christine to try & find out young ????? Kirk at Malta where he is wounded. Now I must write to Marion Lindsay to see if she can find out anything about Archie Douglas Dick, I’ve heard from Charles ???? particulars. I had such a nice letter from Marion L. re. the Frenchman I asked her to find, she sent a letter from U.S. Embassy & said Baroness von Bissing had hunted too, but I regret with no result, so I fear he was killed …
They asked me as soon as I arrived back to become an officer, but I declined again, I prefer being what I am. Several of the older men I had been with for some time were so nice about it & said to me they would all like me to become an officer as they all got on so well with me & liked me. It was very nice of them. French speaking men are at a great premium now, but one who is away on leave is soon returning.
We are making a little tea club up here, those who live in this villa & propose having it at 4 every aft.noon, will always be some of us here. Work is mostly night at the moment. Will looked very well at Boulogne. My verandah makes such a nice bathroom, tho’ a bit airy, I suppose I shall not be able to keep it up for long.
A chasseur band is practising on a tennis court at the back, if only they were not such novices it would be all right, but they play a few bars & stop. Will you please pack up & send my calendar in case that stood on right hand side of my writing table & also the 2 photos of my little Australian god daughters that were on my table too, I want them for my writing table in my room here & they being all small frames will not take up room & just makes a table look a bit more furnished & homely …
Best love
Yr affect son
Arthur
S.S.A. No.3
Par Dijon
France
September 8th, 1915
My Dear Mother
…
I asked Christine to try & find out young ????? Kirk at Malta where he is wounded. Now I must write to Marion Lindsay to see if she can find out anything about Archie Douglas Dick, I’ve heard from Charles ???? particulars. I had such a nice letter from Marion L. re. the Frenchman I asked her to find, she sent a letter from U.S. Embassy & said Baroness von Bissing had hunted too, but I regret with no result, so I fear he was killed …
They asked me as soon as I arrived back to become an officer, but I declined again, I prefer being what I am. Several of the older men I had been with for some time were so nice about it & said to me they would all like me to become an officer as they all got on so well with me & liked me. It was very nice of them. French speaking men are at a great premium now, but one who is away on leave is soon returning.
We are making a little tea club up here, those who live in this villa & propose having it at 4 every aft.noon, will always be some of us here. Work is mostly night at the moment. Will looked very well at Boulogne. My verandah makes such a nice bathroom, tho’ a bit airy, I suppose I shall not be able to keep it up for long.
A chasseur band is practising on a tennis court at the back, if only they were not such novices it would be all right, but they play a few bars & stop. Will you please pack up & send my calendar in case that stood on right hand side of my writing table & also the 2 photos of my little Australian god daughters that were on my table too, I want them for my writing table in my room here & they being all small frames will not take up room & just makes a table look a bit more furnished & homely …
Best love
Yr affect son
Arthur
Arthur not mentioned in the paper, indulges in some sightseeing ...
September 13th, 1915
My Dear Mother
Yrs. of 8th enclosing Pip C’s letter came this morng., also an Irish Times with things marked about people from Celbridge etc. It reads well, I was evidently not worth mentioning! Why they should wound poor Tom Horn in the account I don’t know, he was driving about Le Touquet all the time I believe, now I hear he has rejoined same regt. Irish Fusiliers I think, I suppose as Major …
Yesterday I had the luck to be first on when a call came from a place none of our cars had ever been to before. We had to go & fetch a Commandant away up on crest of Vosges along a road only recently made for troops, a climb & parts a bit rough, but lovely when we got there, green & beech groves about. Our man did not want to hurry down, so they invited us to dejeuner at noon at their hut, so as we had an hour to put in before it was ready an officer took us round & up to the top, only a few hundred yards, no trees & we lay down, as it is in full view of miles of German trenches, & took in the view, glorious, the Black Forest beyond, plains of Alsace etc. On a very clear day our friend told us one can see the Swiss Alps & the Jungfrau quite well.
We of course had a marvellous view of all the German positions & ours the roads we go along at night which we’d never seen in day. Curious with all those thousands of French & Germans away down below us, it was perfectly still, we just saw one shell burst on a German trench, but could not make out from where it was fired, only heard it explode & saw it. I don’t suppose a finer sight of positions would be possible to see. One lay there fascinated, not a soul to be seen any where but us there. What a place to watch a battle from. We had an excellent lunch with a Lt. Observer, a most interesting man & job, as it is he who regulates the artillery fire & sees all the fight from some high up spot & telephones to all the different batteries where to fire, some of them perhaps 3 miles or more from where he is. His cook was a chef from some smart house in Paris. Vin ordinaire to start, then bottle of Pommard & excellent ???? with our coffee. Certainly no need to complain of war fare. We came back a different way through back woods along a newly constructed military road. All the officers are so very kind on these occasions & I always like a job like that, get away on ones own …
If I had been betting on either I’d have certainly had my little bit on her for the most likely to get married! I never imagined Alice would. There is some hope for me yet all these old parties marrying. The war is having & has had a marvellous effect on matrimony …
Most of our work is night, rather beastly.
Best love
Yr affect son
Arthur
My Dear Mother
Yrs. of 8th enclosing Pip C’s letter came this morng., also an Irish Times with things marked about people from Celbridge etc. It reads well, I was evidently not worth mentioning! Why they should wound poor Tom Horn in the account I don’t know, he was driving about Le Touquet all the time I believe, now I hear he has rejoined same regt. Irish Fusiliers I think, I suppose as Major …
Yesterday I had the luck to be first on when a call came from a place none of our cars had ever been to before. We had to go & fetch a Commandant away up on crest of Vosges along a road only recently made for troops, a climb & parts a bit rough, but lovely when we got there, green & beech groves about. Our man did not want to hurry down, so they invited us to dejeuner at noon at their hut, so as we had an hour to put in before it was ready an officer took us round & up to the top, only a few hundred yards, no trees & we lay down, as it is in full view of miles of German trenches, & took in the view, glorious, the Black Forest beyond, plains of Alsace etc. On a very clear day our friend told us one can see the Swiss Alps & the Jungfrau quite well.
We of course had a marvellous view of all the German positions & ours the roads we go along at night which we’d never seen in day. Curious with all those thousands of French & Germans away down below us, it was perfectly still, we just saw one shell burst on a German trench, but could not make out from where it was fired, only heard it explode & saw it. I don’t suppose a finer sight of positions would be possible to see. One lay there fascinated, not a soul to be seen any where but us there. What a place to watch a battle from. We had an excellent lunch with a Lt. Observer, a most interesting man & job, as it is he who regulates the artillery fire & sees all the fight from some high up spot & telephones to all the different batteries where to fire, some of them perhaps 3 miles or more from where he is. His cook was a chef from some smart house in Paris. Vin ordinaire to start, then bottle of Pommard & excellent ???? with our coffee. Certainly no need to complain of war fare. We came back a different way through back woods along a newly constructed military road. All the officers are so very kind on these occasions & I always like a job like that, get away on ones own …
If I had been betting on either I’d have certainly had my little bit on her for the most likely to get married! I never imagined Alice would. There is some hope for me yet all these old parties marrying. The war is having & has had a marvellous effect on matrimony …
Most of our work is night, rather beastly.
Best love
Yr affect son
Arthur
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